Customs: Optimus Prime's head is MIGHTY.

Good lord! The Marvel Comics weren't lying -- Prime is just as powerful as a disembodied noggin than any other autobot!

I got ahold of a spare Masterpiece Optimus head, for use in a custom project....but said project involves disassembling the head...which let me tell you...is much easier said than done.

That bastard head has one screw on the back, which is terribly misleading. That screw doesn't do JACK. To get him apart, you actually have to remove a roughly 1-inch long serrated pin -- the one that runs from one ear to the other -- which is really the only thing holding the entire head together. There's no way to pull it out because it's recessed so far. There's no way to push it out because the other side is sealed.

I tried every trick I know of to get that pin out. I tried heating it with a soldering iron and pulling the earpiece, but that didn't work. I tried bending and pulling and prying...and not only did that dadblasted head resist all damage, it also refused to open up. (open, dammit OPEN) I actually BROKE A PAIR OF PLIERS trying to pry the two halves apart from the inside. The handles just snapped it in half! The plastic didn't give, the pin didn't give; the PLIERS broke. That's mighty.

After that, desperation set in -- I decided I'd try drilling. I drilled a hole in the other ear, inserted a nail, and started hammering away at the other side of the pin, trying to force it out. NOTHING would budge that pin. I tried combining tactics -- heating up the pin from one side, until the plastic was almost too hot to hold, then hammering from the other side. Still wouldn't budge. INEXPLICABLE.

This was where I threw the entire concept of structural integrity out the window and just wanted to get the thing apart. I had wasted an hour trying to take apart this ONE FREAKING PART. I broke out the wire cutters, and attempted to simply sever the entire connecting rod, plastic, metal pin and all...reasoning I would find a way to fix it later. I should have known better. the plastic yielded easily, but whatever that pin is made of -- adamantium, I suspect -- refused to so much as chip. I pushed the wire cutters with all my strength, even tried STANDING on them... I eventually took another pair of pliers and used those to force the wire cutter with even more torque...the result? It BENT my wire cutters.

I've never seen anything like this. It broke my pliers, warped my STEEL WIRE CUTTERS, and STILL showed no signs of giving up. Utterly flabbergasted yet unwilling to admit defeat, I resorted to my final option: I fished out my bolt cutter. And yet...and yet it STILL took some heaving to get the thing cut in half...and yes, even in half the pin refused to be budged. I took the halves and hammered on them for another fifteen minutes in a vice before the pin FINALLY worked loose.

I swear -- I've NEVER encountered ANYTHING like that before. EVER. I spent two hours and two damaged tools, just trying to get out one impossibly stuck pin. Optimus Prime truly is a god among autobots.

Did you try using a jewlers saw and cutting it? it's worked for me in the past. Might take a little bit more time, but you'd only break 5 cent blades instead of nice cutters. Any modeler/basher should own one of those saws in my opinon. And buy a deep throat (snicker) one, it's much better when working around parts or wierd angles.